Early-stage human tests have been approved by China for two experimental coronavirus vaccines as it battles to contain imported cases and prevent a second wave of coronavirus spread.
The experimental vaccines are being developed by a Beijing-based unit of Sinovac Biotech and by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which is an affiliate of state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group, as reported by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
Sarah Clarke from Al Jazeera reported from Hong Kong saying China’s National Health Commission also confirmed the trials will go on.
Beijing gave a go-ahead to another clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine candidate in March, developed by the military-backed Academy of Military Medical Sciences and biotech firm CanSino Bio, not long after the US drug developer Moderna said it had started human trials for their vaccine with the US National Institutes of Health.
Sarah Clarke also said, “We can confirm now that three particular vaccines are being tested in China, and the National Health Commission has said it will have to clear a number of conditions before they can enable mass production of the vaccines globally.”
John Nicholls, a clinical professor of Pathology at the University of Hong Kong whose team was one of the first outside mainland China to reproduce the virus in a laboratory for research, said: “Vaccines can’t be rushed”.
“Normally with vaccines you start off with small animals and then move to primates and then to the humans,” said Nicholls speaking to Al Jazeera. “It seems that with this one they have gone straight to the humans, which is a very bold decision.”
He added that “Most of the mortality in this disease is in the elderly, so the best thing would be to actually see what the anti-body response is in the elderly rather than the young.”
